Kiss My Knits!

Fiber Godmother Questionnaire

Cut because you won’t care if you’re not participating in Fiber Godmother.

I’m very clumsy with drinks, and have ruined several (okay, five) keyboards by inadvertently spilling water in them. Well, over Thanksgiving, I managed to spill milk on Tyrathia’s scarf and the yarn it was being knit with. Umm… sorry, . It seemed okay afterward and I put it aside, but when I went to knit on it today (I’m trying to sneak in a few rows on side projects here and there between hats) the yarn was stiff in spots. It’s 100% bamboo (I think) so it’s definitely not supposed to be crusty. Attempting to knit a row or two like that made me believe that it would probably affect the final product more than I first thought.

I wound the remaining un-knitted yarn into a large hank and rinsed it and the half-finished scarf in cold water in the kitchen sink. Man, that dye is NOT fast. Two rinses and it still ran blue. Good to know for future reference. However, a little light swishing and it seemed to have gotten rid of the milk, as far as I was able to tell while it was wet.

It’s drying over the shower rod now. And I’m newly excited about this project. Having it wet and being able to drape it against my hand and see roughly how it looked stretched and blocked made me realize just how pretty this pattern is. Tyrathia’s going to have a very nice scarf when it’s finally finished. Which may be 2020 by this rate, but hey – it’ll be worth it!

I got little gifts for some DR colleagues, kind of a “thank you for all your hard work” and had been feeling bad about not mailing it before now. Today I hear that one of those people had a house fire and is obviously out of their home. Glad I didn’t mail it yet. I’ve written them to offer whatever help that I can.

Makes me very grateful for what I’ve got, that’s for sure.

Update on the amazon.com debacle.

I wrote to Amazon today, since my order is still showing as waiting to ship, and firmly but politely asked what the deal was. They sent back a very nice letter saying that they had reviewed the account and determined that a system error was holding it up. They apologized profusely, and said that I can refuse delivery when it arrives and send the whole shipment back, and they will gladly refund the money, including shipping costs. So, assuming that promise is honored, I’m very satisfied. Now that my ire has diminished and they’ve provided good customer service, of course I’ll be glad to shop with them again.

Since I bashed them fairly hard in the previous entry, I thought the act of them redeeming themselves merited a new post rather than just an update to the old post. Tvini happy!

Holiday update once I can get pictures of our pathetic Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

So I’m on line at Borders at 10:30 at night BECAUSE AMAZON SCREWED UP MY ORDER and the checkout guy looks at my chest and goes, “No way.”

Now, I’ve had a lot of reactions from men toward my chest, but “no way” is probably the most deflating, no pun intended.

Then I realize I’m wearing my Blue Sun shirt. Aha! So I was able to say, “Yes, and not only that, but I’m knitting a Jayne hat!” So I had to pull it out and show it to him, and we gushed over Firefly for a few minutes, and tried to get nearby people to watch the show – you know, all the stuff that Browncoats do when we meet. Converting someone is our version of a secret handshake.

He seemed totally psyched about the hat, so I gave him my card. He was even more psyched about the shirt. I couldn’t remember at the time where I got it, but now I recall it was http://www.bluesunshirts.com/

It was a nice little interaction that made the evening better.

Browncoats is the nicest peoples.

After reading ‘s tale of woe, I feel inspired to post mine.

I’m still waiting for eleven books I ordered on the 16th. They’re part of a larger order that was split into three shipments, which is fine. Hey, that means they’re trying to get it all out of the door as quickly as they can, right? Well, two shipments have arrived. According to my account, the third is still waiting. In what world does “two day delivery” mean “waiting to be shipped six days later?” And according to the info at the top of the account, it can’t be cancelled, it can only be returned. Which makes zero sense to me if it’s still physically sitting on their property. I would have HAPPILY removed whatever one book is holding it up immediately had I realized, but it’s damn hard to see what part is gumming up the works, so how the hell was I supposed to figure that out?

All I know is that I’m short eleven children’s books, and I leave town to meet those children tomorrow morning. Which means I have to go to my local bookstore and brave the crowds tonight, buying the exact same books I’ve already paid for.

Can only be returned? Damn right it’ll be returned. And neither I nor my Amazon.com credit card will darken their door again.

‘Taggers’ tag local objects with knitting. http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2005-12-15/news/news.html

I wonder if they need a Charlotte branch.

Reminds me of the sign someone put up in 2002 at the intersection of Park and Sharon. It was up pretty high, and looked perfect. So perfect, and so high, that either nobody else noticed it or nobody felt like shimmying up there to take it down. It stayed up for about two years. Look at the far away view (I took this in 2002) and you’ll see why it might have gone unnoticed.

I actually went to try to see the landmark several times. I didn’t notice any tear in the space/time continuum. However, something about driving down that road played hell with my car’s dilithium crystal matrix, so I had to stop. Also, I would emerge on the other side several hours late for appointments. Oh, and once I did see someone who looked exactly like me driving the other direction, and as they passed I noticed they had a goatee. Aside from that, though, nothing.

There’s still another sign at the intersection of Park and Seneca that reads “Cameron Yards.” Based on this, I’m guessing that these guys are responsible. I have no clue what the heck that’s all about, but I thank them for making me snicker every time I passed Park and Sharon for two years.

just called. She told me she just got off of a plane where she met a guy on the Jayne hat waiting list. Sure enough, his name and location match someone marked with a big red PENDING. This all came up in conversation because they were both reading Serenity stuff. What are the odds?

I made this for my mom. She reads my blog, but I can post it here now since my six-year-old couldn’t hold out any more, so we had “Grandma Christmas” today.

This is a “pocket creature,” based on the pattern from Knitty. The idea is that it holds a little bag of rice and lavender, which can be removed and heated in the microwave, then put back inside the body of the creature. You keep it in a pocket to keep your hands warm.

Here it is with its innards out.

After reading various craft boards, I decided that flaxseed and lavender would work better than rice and lavender. It does seem to hold the heat better and not have a ricey smell. However, while the inner pouch does warm up nicely, not too much of that heat gets transferred to the outside of the creature, so it’s a bit of a wash as a handwarmer. But, MAN does it smell like lavender, which makes it great as a potpourri/sachet item. And you can always pop the inner pouch in the microwave again if you really want to disperse the scent.

I also sprang for the recommended yarn, Karabella Aurora 8, even though it’s a little luxe. I’m glad I did – this is easily the softest machine-washable wool I’ve ever laid hands on. And I’ve got plenty left for other projects. I picked up stitches for one of the arms a little differently than its mate, so it looks like it’s perpetually waving, but I think that just adds to its charm.

I’ll definitely be making this again. I’m not keen on strong lavender smells, as mentioned earlier, but I was thinking that peppermint or chamomile or cinnamon/gingerbready smells might be good. All in all, a success.